I still have backing of Portsmouth board - Mousinho

Portsmouth currently sit one point above the Championship relegation zone [Getty Images] Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has said he still has the backing of the club's board despite their recent poor run of form in the Championship. The Blues currently sit 21st in the league table and just a point above the relegation zone which is occupied by Leicester, Oxford United and Sheffield Wednesday. They return to Championship action on Friday when they travel away to Norwich City, looking for their first league win since beating Millwall in February.

In the games played since that victory, Portsmouth have lost five of their six matches, drawing once. When asked if this was the toughest spell Mousinho had faced since becoming Portsmouth boss, he replied "probably". "The difficulty though this spell - and I won't hide behind the results because they have been really poor - is that off the back of those performances away at Charlton and Millwall, we were really looking to kick on," he added.

"We definitely put the performances in, we just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net enough and conceded some sloppy goals. "In my opinion, we've been playing really well since the turn of the year but we have to do a lot more to turn our form around. " Mousinho's two main seasons at Portsmouth so far have been memorable ones, winning promotion in his first full campaign and last season achieving Championship safety with a five-point cushion.

This is still his first head coach role in football since leaving Oxford United, where he served as a player and coach until 2023. Despite the likes of Oxford, West Brom and Leicester introducing new head coaches and interim bosses since the turn of the year, it looks like Mousinho will be given the chance to keep Portsmouth in the second tier. "Myself and the club have been through a fair bit over the past three and a bit years," the 39-year-old added.